Christmas 2010 @the Indiana State Museum

We go each year just before Christmas to the Indiana State Museum. The boys think it's cool to see the Indiana history, especially the areas with rocks, animal tracks, and formerly live animals (now stuffed!). They ride the train and sit on Santa's lap for our official kids w/Santa photo. And they visit the gift shop, which is always the most important stop of any museum!

And a fun sleigh photo before we left... after about 12 takes, this was the one that exhibited the most cooperation by both boys!

My Boys!

Love this photo of my 3 guys... so handsome, even if I do say so myself.

And clearly I also love zip-neck sweaters! Haha!

Cousins!

The boys sure do love their cousins. This is Kyle, who is just from February to October younger then Ben. He comes in right between Ben and Jonah, who has a birthday in January. We were at a funeral visitation here, so that was unfortunate, but the boys were happy to see their cousin. They both greeted him with a hug.

Growing up I had cousins around all of the time. I wish for the boys that they had more of that sometimes, but then I suppose that it wouldn't be quite as special. When I mention a cousin they always want to know when they can see him/her!

I love that!

Angela

A Snuggi & a Wii!

(Sung to the tune of "All I Want for Christmas")

All I want for Christmas is a Snuggi & a Wii

A Snuggi & a Wii

A Snuggi & a Wii..

The boys have wanted a Wii now for 3 Christmases but Jason and I had a good list of reasons not to get them one for the first 2 years. They have a big yard and we want them to play in it. Our old game system, the PS2, was really enough. We didn't want them to become video game junkies. etc.

We caved.

They still won't be allowed to play on school nights, just weekends. And I guarantee Owen will end up being grounded from the game as much as he has allowance to play it. I joke that we gave them ds games last year just to ground them (mostly Owen) from them! I'd also like to work out a plan to give them time to play kind of like an allowance (instead of paying cash) for doing chores. Not sure how that will work yet so if anyone has suggestions, let me know.

Anyway, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, Owen must have said at least a dozen times how he wished he had a Wii. It was all I could do to keep the secret. We gave it to them in the morning on Christmas Eve and let them play in their pjs all day. We all played Mario Cart and another Mario game (I can't keep them straight). It was a lot of fun. I got the Zumba Wii game as a gift and I've tried it once. Ben laughed. Owen tried to join in, but ended up on the floor in my path. That didn't go well. We intentionally tried it when Jason wasn't home so that he wouldn't laugh. Owen told me that he'd punch him if he laughed. I like the sound of that... although I'm clearly not condoning punching, and esp of his parent or any other adult! ha!

And about the Snuggis... Aunt Tammie told me last year that she was getting the boys Snuggis and embroidering them. I thought, note to self, remind them to be gracious even if they want no part of the gift. To my surprise they've had a lot of fun with them. They've been Jedi robes, Harry Potter robes, and just plain Snuggis in the morning when they are sitting on the couch watching tv or playing video games. Who knew?

I'll miss the morning cuteness and sweetness when I go back to work in two days!

Angela